Kingdom Prayer... Brings The Kingdom
Welcome to Mercy City Church. And thanks for listening to today's message. Mercy City is a church in Lincoln, Nebraska, that is committed to connecting people to the heart of God and the house of God. We can't wait to connect with you and hear more about your story. So make sure you fill out our online connection card that you can click in the description. Thanks again for listening and enjoy today's message.
But today, we're gonna shift gears just a little bit while we talk about the kingdom because I want to address why I believe some of us are specifically missing. Living life. According to the kingdom, we're living life going to church, but we're not seeing the kingdom come we're seeing our Sunday morning, adjusted and change. But we're not seeing our Monday morning change. We're not seeing our Tuesday afternoon or our Wednesday evening, certainly not our Saturday evening, adjusting according to the transformation that is supposed to take place in the kingdom. Why is that? What keeps us from experiencing the fullness of the kingdom? Well, let's pray about it. And then we'll dive into some scripture in Joshua Chapter number nine. Father, we love you. We're so grateful this morning for the wonderful opportunity we have to be in your presence. We don't take it lightly God, it's a big deal. So we pray today that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would lead us and guide us that you would show us Jesus, like we've never seen him before. Because we know it's upon revelation of who Jesus is that you'll build and establish your church, not a building, not a location, not an organization, but a people. And so God established your church on the inside of us that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Father, we love you. We honor you. We bless you today. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Come on everybody. One more time, a big head clap for Jesus. He's worthy of praise. Oh, so fun. So fun. Let me let me ask you a question. Before we dive into the Scripture, have you ever been presented with an opportunity that seemed like it was just a slam dunk? Like, this is a no brainer of an opportunity? Only to get into the opportunity to realize this, ain't it? You know what I mean? You're trying to convince your wife like, Yes, this is awesome. This is the one God said it. And then your two weeks in, you're like, missed it. This is horrible. That guy's a jerk. Anybody ever? Of course you have we all have. But there's a difference between having a one off or maybe a couple of those in the course of a lifetime. And somebody who lives in that place over and over. And over and over and over again. You know, we all have, you know?
We all know that one person out there just like can't catch a break. It just can't make a good decision. Every person they date turns out to be a dud. You know what I'm talking about? Every new job that is the next great opportunity. It's like, no, it's terrible. But you told me 48 hours ago that it was gonna be amazing. And now it's not we all know those people, right? So what do we do in the midst of that we all know those people that think that they're seeing the kingdom come only to realize that the kingdom in fact is not coming. It's not going the way that they thought that it was gonna go we all know those people. And I think that the Bible addresses this in Joshua, chapter number nine, if you've been doing your soul journaling with us, as we read through the Bible in a year, you should have read Joshua chapter nine around April 13. But if you get behind from time to time, like other people in the life of our church, you probably read it like April 17 18th 21st. But it's okay, we're gonna stay in it, man, and we're gonna keep going through it. So we're gonna jump into chapter number nine. But I want to give you a little bit of background before we get there. Joshua was a leader that took over leading the children of Israel for a guy named Moses Moses took the children of Israel out of Egyptian captivity. You remember the story where Moses showed up to Pharaoh and he said, Let my people go. Y'all remember that movie, it was actually her Bible. So anyway, Moses takes the children of Israel out of Egypt. But before long, he realizes that while I took the people out of Egypt, it's hard to get Egypt out of the people. I'm so thankful for the New Testament in the person of Jesus, that He can take the old us out of us. While we become the new us in the new place. I am so thankful for Jesus because what happened here was a whole generation of people had to die before they could walk into the promised land. And Moses was one of them, Moses died, and Joshua took over. And so Joshua, as he took over, he didn't just take over because he was the next best choice. It was because he was the choice. He was the one the Bible says, would stay behind in the presence of God, when everybody else would leave. He valued God's presence, and he valued God's presence in such a way that while he wasn't leading, God gave him opportunity to lead and he continued to value God's presence in such a way that he led the people well, in the Lord, he reestablished the covenant commitment that had been lost over the 40 years in the wilderness. And the way that he reestablished the covenant that God had with his people was through adult circumcision. Yeah, the Bible says there was a hill of four skins. I didn't. I didn't make that up, man. It's in the Bible. I'm telling you go read it. Some of y'all are looking like to what I'm telling you read the Bible, man. It's awesome. I mean, wait, at that part of the Bible is not awesome. Imagine, imagine being an adult. Okay. I feel like I'm sweating up here, man, holy cow. But it's in the Bible, man. I'm telling you, it's the truth. But what happened? was Joshua in such a way, honor the Lord, that it didn't matter what pet sins a generation of people had held on to. He said, we're going to reestablish our covenant relationship with the Lord. And the way to do that is even though you're an adult, even though you've lived with this your whole life, how many times have those of us who have gone there been there done that said, You know what, I've been doing this sim for a long time. This has been a part of my life for a long time. So I'm just going to leave it here. Joshua said, no, no, that's not good enough. We're going to take a look at that sin issue, we're going to take a look at that thing that disconnects us from the covenant relationship we're supposed to have with our father. And we're gonna cut it away. As God has called us to thankfully, we don't often cut ourselves anymore who Jesus. But we do according to the Spirit of God cut away the sin issues of our heart. And we lay that in a place before the Lord, where we say, God, I don't want anything in my life, even hidden things, even covered things that would separate me from you, Joshua was a great leader. And I'm so grateful for the way that he led and the foreshadowing of Christ that he was for you and I. But in the midst of all of this reestablishing the covenant relationship, allowing the Lord to deal with sin, without excuse of further compromise. There was some battles along the way. And there were some battles where the people of Israel really, really dominated some of their enemies. Now, there was a couple of hiccups too. But Joshua, again, made things right very, very quickly, in the sight of the Lord, being able to move forward according to the plan, the purpose and the destiny of God. And that's where we pick up here in Joshua, chapter number nine. The Bible says this in verse number one, and just in case you didn't get your Bible reading, and I got you covered for this week, but next week, let's get into the Word together. Sound good, everybody. Here we go. Now all the kings west of the Jordan River heard about what had happened. They heard about the battles they heard about the way that God had blessed Joshua and the people of Israel, they had heard about all of the things that have taken place. These were the kings of the Hittites. Amorites, Canaanites, parasites, invites Jebusites, who lived in the hill country in the Western foothills, and along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, as far north Lebanon mountains. These kings combined their armies to fight as one against Joshua and the Israelites. They heard that it was a bad day and so they, they they combined forces to be able to come against the stand against but there was one. The people of Gibson, who had heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and AI, and they've resorted not to join the Army's not to join the crowd, but they resorted to deception to save themselves. They sent ambassadors to Joshua, loading their donkeys with weathered saddlebags and old patch wineskins. They put on worn patch sandals and ragged clothes. And the bread that they took with them was dry and moldy. When they arrived at the camp of Israel and killed God. They told Joshua and the men of Israel, we've come from a distant land to ask you to make a peace treaty with us. The Israelites replied to the headlights, how do we know that you don't live nearby? For if you do, we cannot make a peace treaty with you. They replied, were your servants. But who are you Joshua commanded? Where do you come from? They answered, your sermons have come from a very distant country. We heard of the might of the Lord your God. And all you did, all he did in Egypt. We have also heard what you did to the Amorite kings in the east of the Jordan River. So our elders and our people instructed us take supplies for this long journey. Go and meet the people of Israel and tell them we are Your servants. Please make a treaty with us. This bread was hot from the ovens when we left our homes. But now as you can see, it's dry and it's moldy. The wineskins were new when we filled them, but now they're old and they're split open, and our clothing our sandals, they're worn out from the long journey. So the Israelites examine their food, but they did not consult the Lord. Then Joshua made the peace treaty with them and guaranteed their safety. And the leaders of the community ratified their agreement with a binding oath. Three days after making the treaty, they learned that these people actually live nearby some say Dark Town. So these jokers lied. They deceived they bamboozled they tricked. You ever felt tricked when you got into the middle of something you ever felt bamboozled? You ever felt like somebody didn't tell you the whole story? You ever feel like you didn't see the whole picture before you ventured into this new thing. The Israelites set out a wants to investigate and reach their towns in three days. The names of the towns were as you can read on the screen. But the Israelites did not attack the towns, for the Israelite leaders had made a vow to them in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. Shazam, everybody. Now, how many of y'all know that if you got tricked if you got bamboozled if you got done dirty like this, and somebody deceived you, I don't know if you would, but I know that I would want to offer somebody's head, you know what I'm talking about, like, you lied to me. And because you lied to me, I'm not gonna uphold my end of the deal.
Anybody ever got in the midst of something and you didn't see the whole picture didn't come the way that you felt like it would. And so you wanted to back off the deal that you made anybody ever been there? Of course you had. But I gotta let you know that that's not how the Kingdom comes. See, I think that in this scripture, what we observe is a man who is leading people into Kingdom endeavors. They're seeing the kingdom come and they're seeing the will of God be done as they take on this new land, a generation that was locked out of this promised land for 40 years now beginning to see the fullness, the fulfilment of God and the promise that he made to them. But they got a little bit too big for their britches. They felt like I'm victorious and I'm good. And we got what it takes, and they begin to do something that they should have not done. They did their own examination. Look at this, verse 14, everybody, so the Israelites examined their food, the Israelites examine their food. But they did not consult the Lord. How many of us would begin to experience the good things of God, only to feel like man, we're doing pretty good with God. God's blessing our lives. God is moving us forward. God has shown off on our behalf and so rather than further consult God in the next decision, or the next step, or the next direction, or the next day, what we do is we just rely on what we've already seen, well, I thought, some battles and I won some wars. And so I'm just going to go into Sam, this thing for myself, rather than consulting the Lord, whenever you do that, you are opening yourself up to make a bad decision. See, here's what culture does culture will lie to us and teach us to begin to believe in outcomes rather than an obedience. And when we see the outcome of a battle where we win, or we see the outcome of a decision where we have consulted the Lord, and we become victorious, the next one makes it a little bit easier for us to consult ourselves or to lead into our own self examination. We lean into our own discernment, we lean into our own abilities, yes, that God has given us but he still wants us to call on him. I think that many of us don't see the kingdom come, because we're more interested in what culture says, than in what the kingdom has to say. I remember when we first moved here from Georgia, we were about a year into the life of the church. And we were seeing about 200 people come at that time. And man, we were thrilled with 200 people. I remember talking to an old friend from Georgia, and was just telling them what God had been doing. And this wasn't the first time that I talked to him. But it was the first time since we had moved in a year and a half, that he said to me, Wow, you can really see that God's in what you're doing. And I thought, Wait, God's in what we're doing, because now we're seeing some successes, according to what the world says. And I felt like the Holy Spirit have rested my, my heart and he said, No, no, you were successful, even when you hosted that very first interest party and nobody can see, because if we begin to believe the lies of the culture, that it's only about the numbers, and it's only about the ups and the downs, it's only about the outcome of a thing, what we will begin to do is miss the obedience to God in the midst of the thing. See, God wasn't any more in the outcome when we had 200 that he was in the outcome when we had zero. And he's not any more in the outcome now that we have 1000s that he was when we had 200. God is into obedience, he's not into outcomes. But as long as you and I allow our lives to be dictated to by outcomes, we will believe the lies of culture, have come to encourage you today. Everybody, that it's not ours to examine on our own, it's ours to consult with the Lord. In all things, in all ways at all times. See what God has to say about the next step of our life. Here's what this word consult means to seek information or advice from someone with expertise in a particular area. Can I tell you that God has expertise in every area of your life? You need help in your marriage. God is the expert consultant. You need help with school God as the expert consultant, you need help in that date, even God is the expert consultant. You need help starting your business or making the next step in your business to see it thrive. God is the expert consultant, you need help in disciplining your kids. God is the expert consultant, we need to start consulting the Lord. I think that the reason we don't see the kingdom come in our lives is because we don't first consult the Lord. Most often. We lean into our gift, we lean into our understanding, we lean into everything that we have. And then when we come to the end of ourselves, then we consult the Lord. But by then we've already half the time written a check that we cannot cash. We've got to lead with praying Kingdom prayers, because when we pray Kingdom prayers when we consult the Lord first and most that's when the kingdom can actually come. Specifically today, I want to challenge us I want to encourage us to pray prayers of consultation, where we are in all things, always all things going to the Lord first. Some of us might say, well, I go to Scripture and everything. Okay, but is that scripture bathed in prayer? Or is it just your best interpretation of it? Because you're still missing it. Because if it's the word without the Spirit, you're missing it. But also if it's just the Spirit without the word you're missing, it's gotta be both and it's the Spirit and the Word, the Word and the Spirit of God that leads us in our prayers of consultation. The first thing that we must pray A is we must pray prayers of inquiry. I'm inquiring of God. What does this mean? I'm asking. Simply ask God what he wants to communicate. God What are you saying, somebody comes to you is trying to deceive you bamboozle you trick you get something out of you, that is a benefit to them. What are we supposed to do? Not lean into our own examination, not lean into our own understanding, not lean into our own discernment. We're supposed to ask the Father God, what are you saying? When's the last time you stop long enough? When an opportunity came your way to simply ask God? What are you saying? So many of us, man get out in front of God because we just don't ask him what he wants to say we must prioritize asking God, first and most in all things. The Bible says this and James chapter one, verses five and six, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God. And he'll give it to you. He won't rebuke you for asking. See, some people get we we get so religious like, Well, God doesn't have time for me. God doesn't want me to know God wants you to ask, he loves you as a son, he loves you as a daughter. He loves you as His child he wants you to ask, see, your parents taught you that? Well, you gotta go figure it out. No, that's wrong. God wants you to ask him because he wants to lead you to help you figure it out. See, as parents well, I'm not this is not parenting. I'll teach that in another time. But when you ask him, be sure that you ask him faith in Him alone, not in yourself. Not in your ability. Not in your knowledge, not in your understanding. Your faith in God alone. Do not waver for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. When you ask God asked by faith, God, I know that you love me. And as I'm inquiring of you, I know you've got an answer for me. I know that you don't want to leave me hanging. I don't I know that you don't want to leave me out here. I know you don't want to leave me wondering.
And I know you don't want to leave me wondering. Ask God. Another great scripture to write down in, according to this point is Matthew chapter number seven, seven and eight. Ask not seek, he'll show up. The second thing that we do the second prayer that we can pray in prayers of consultation. First is inquiry. We want to ask God, but second is insights I'm gonna say insight, insight, insight, what we're doing is we're asking God to assess for us. We're not asking God to allow us to assess we're asking God to assess the situation for us. God, I want your insight. What do you know that I don't know? What had what could have happened if Joshua would have stopped and said, Okay, you guys are telling me that you're from far away. But I'm not entirely sure that I believe you. So God, what do you have to say? What insight Do you have helped me assess the situation helped me see beyond what I can see helped me sense beyond what I can sense help me go beyond my natural giftedness and help me see something or know something, understand something in the spirit of the thing. I want to understand as I do, we must allow God to help us assess according to his wisdom and his insight, not according to our own. First John, chapter four, verse one says this, dear friends do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit, you must test them to see if the Spirit they have have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. And there are people all over the place that say they're from God, and they are not from God. They sound right. They look right. But if you know how to discern in the Spirit, you know that it ain't right. Some of the people that sound the best that look the best, the most put together are the scariest to me. Because they don't know the Spirit of God. So they operate in a spirit of deception. They operate a spirit of religion, they spirit, they operate in a spirit of pride. It's scary. You know what pride does? It only looks out for ourselves. sort of come to us in deception and try to work a deal that's best for me even though it might not be the best for you. You know who God cares about? He cares about you. Now he cares about them too, but he cares about you. So he'll always leads you in the place that you're supposed to go. We've got to ask God for his insight, pray prayers of insight that help us assess the third prayer that we pray our prayers of invitation. So we say invitation. And here's what prayers of invitation do I love this. Prayers of invitation help us to establish the address. Like, where are we going? What's what's the next step? When we invite God, I love this. God doesn't leave us wondering, now we're going to have to take steps of faith, for sure. We're going to have to take steps where we don't necessarily see what the next step is. But we have an idea of where we're going because he gives us the address. Romans, chapter eight, verse 14, says, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. And did you know that the Bible also says that God gives good gifts to his children, that means he's not going to leave you out on your own wandering, or wondering what's next? He's gonna give you an address, and he's gonna say, hey, head this direction. I remember when we moved to Lincoln to plant this church, we were praying about planting a church, we're praying about where we might go living in Macon, Georgia, we're praying. And God said, like, and as Louise, just take it back to prayer and pray some more, because please leave leaking. Oh, no. And he said, Lankan, I said, Oh, should we pray about this again, Pastor Kerry was like, now, that's the address. We don't know what the next step is. But we know where we're going. We don't know how it's going. We don't know the outcome of the thing. But we know where we're going. We didn't know when we came for the first interest party that nobody would show up. But we knew where we were going.
Because when you invite God in, he will give you the address. Psalm 37, verse 23, says that he directs the steps of the righteous. Righteous is right standing with God. And you're never more than rightist any than when you invite God in. You invite Him in, not so that you can give him your plan, but so that you can receive His plan, what's your plan, and he'll show you the address. And you'll have to make steps of faith, trust me, trust me. But we need to pray prayers of invitation. And initially, I only had three things, but I feel like there's one more thing that I wanted to give you. So the three prayers to pray actually just make up for integrity, some say integrity. And this is where I see so many followers of Jesus miss it. Is in integrity. Because like I said earlier in the message, somebody comes to me and tricks me. And they say, oh, no, we live far away. But really, they're close. And they did it to deceive me, so that I would create a peace treaty with them. So now they're a danger to me. And they're even more dangerous in my mind, because not only are they a danger, but they'll lie to me. And I don't know about you, but I have a hard time with people who don't tell me the truth. And so in and of myself, I want to cut them off. So if I'm one of the guys that goes to their camp, that three day journey, the further I'm going, the more ticked off I am, I shouldn't have to be on this journey right now. I shouldn't have to be covering this ground right now. They should have told us the truth. And as they told us the truth, we could have decided what we would do with them. But now three days later, I show up to their camp, you know, the first thing I want to do, I want to start cutting some heads off. I want to start showing them who's boss. I want to start showing them I am the child of God, I am the man of God, we are the people of God. But it was so interesting to me because the people of God did not retaliate. Why? Because they established of treason, treaty of peace when that treaty of peace was established, based on a lie. But here's what you have to understand about integrity. Nobody can take your integrity from you. You and I forfeit our integrity by not keeping our word. See the covenant the peace treaty that Joshua made. The Bible says with the people he made it before God. So the treaty was made before God as a believer, not just with the people. If you let people talk you out of your integrity, that's not their fault. It's yours. It's hours, it's mine. When I make a commitment, I uphold my commitment. Whether it was based on truth or a lie, God will give grace to see it through no matter what. But all the more reason everybody to make sure that we stop and we pray prayers of consultation, where we're inquiring of the Lord. We're asking for his insight. God, who do you want me to marry? Which direction? Do you want me to go? When do you want me to start this business? What do you want this to look like? God, I need your mind on this thing. Not my examination, I need you. But even when you do fall, even when you do miss it, you gotta have integrity. Integrity means this. It's the state of being whole, or undivided. As I was praying around this yesterday, I felt like the Lord said that integrity is inner grit. It talks about grit all the time, culturally, oh, yeah, they're just real gritty. Got that business up and rolling. I mean, they've got what it takes. All that player on the on the on the ball, he is he's really booboo off the bat, whatever, right? Grit means this courage, resolve strength of character. But integrity is inner grit. Its courage, its resolve the strength of character that somebody can't see that they wouldn't observe naturally about you. But you put it on display. When culture says hey, it would make sense for you to cut their head off. culture says it would make sense for you to leave leave that culture says it would make sense for you to give up culture says it would make sense for you to stop short culture says it would make sense for you to turn your back on. But integrity says I will make sense because I made a vow before God. And they may be able to lie to me, but I'm not gonna lie to myself. They may be able to deceive me, but I'm not gonna deceive myself. They may be able to give up on me. But I'm not giving up on myself. Some of y'all need to go back to the place where you made a commitment before the Lord. And you've put blame on other people. You say, You know what, Lord, I received this. And I'm moving forward based on integrity, inner grit in me. I believe that's where we're gonna see the kingdom come, where we're gonna see God's will be done. See, we're not trying to just have cute little church services on Sunday morning, everybody. We're trying to get people to live according to the kingdom of heaven. So that your Monday morning has changed so that your Thursday evening has changed. So the way that your marriage is changes, the way that you parent your children changes the way that you do your business changes. That's what we're trying to see. And allow God to do. That our lives might change. Come on, would you stand on your feet with me this morning and all of our locations. I'm gonna pray for you this morning. And as I do, our prayer teams are going to come forward. Because some of us in this room we have gotten out in front of God. Or maybe we've lagged behind God. Maybe we've just missed them all together. And today is the day when we come back into alignment with God. reestablish our integrity to say God, I'll inquire I need your insights. This is how I want to move forward. You need to know what mercy says. Nobody has to pray alone. Nobody has to go with them. God has surrounded us with people, men and women of God brothers and sisters in Christ, who have committed to Jesus first and most have been in similar places situations as you and you don't have to go along. So again, I'm gonna pray that this message hit you. I want you to come forward and receive prayer. As we wrap up service. Father, thank You for every person under the sound of my voice. God, I thank you for the way that you have spoken the direction that you've given. Father, we do want your kingdom to come. God we pray that we will be people of people who seek insight, who offer invitation, and God who stand on integrity. Our own giftedness but what you placed on the inside. So we ask that you do it and do what God says. Let us know. We're not alone. We don't have to face this on our own in Jesus name. Amen
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But today, we're gonna shift gears just a little bit while we talk about the kingdom because I want to address why I believe some of us are specifically missing. Living life. According to the kingdom, we're living life going to church, but we're not seeing the kingdom come we're seeing our Sunday morning, adjusted and change. But we're not seeing our Monday morning change. We're not seeing our Tuesday afternoon or our Wednesday evening, certainly not our Saturday evening, adjusting according to the transformation that is supposed to take place in the kingdom. Why is that? What keeps us from experiencing the fullness of the kingdom? Well, let's pray about it. And then we'll dive into some scripture in Joshua Chapter number nine. Father, we love you. We're so grateful this morning for the wonderful opportunity we have to be in your presence. We don't take it lightly God, it's a big deal. So we pray today that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would lead us and guide us that you would show us Jesus, like we've never seen him before. Because we know it's upon revelation of who Jesus is that you'll build and establish your church, not a building, not a location, not an organization, but a people. And so God established your church on the inside of us that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Father, we love you. We honor you. We bless you today. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Come on everybody. One more time, a big head clap for Jesus. He's worthy of praise. Oh, so fun. So fun. Let me let me ask you a question. Before we dive into the Scripture, have you ever been presented with an opportunity that seemed like it was just a slam dunk? Like, this is a no brainer of an opportunity? Only to get into the opportunity to realize this, ain't it? You know what I mean? You're trying to convince your wife like, Yes, this is awesome. This is the one God said it. And then your two weeks in, you're like, missed it. This is horrible. That guy's a jerk. Anybody ever? Of course you have we all have. But there's a difference between having a one off or maybe a couple of those in the course of a lifetime. And somebody who lives in that place over and over. And over and over and over again. You know, we all have, you know?
We all know that one person out there just like can't catch a break. It just can't make a good decision. Every person they date turns out to be a dud. You know what I'm talking about? Every new job that is the next great opportunity. It's like, no, it's terrible. But you told me 48 hours ago that it was gonna be amazing. And now it's not we all know those people, right? So what do we do in the midst of that we all know those people that think that they're seeing the kingdom come only to realize that the kingdom in fact is not coming. It's not going the way that they thought that it was gonna go we all know those people. And I think that the Bible addresses this in Joshua, chapter number nine, if you've been doing your soul journaling with us, as we read through the Bible in a year, you should have read Joshua chapter nine around April 13. But if you get behind from time to time, like other people in the life of our church, you probably read it like April 17 18th 21st. But it's okay, we're gonna stay in it, man, and we're gonna keep going through it. So we're gonna jump into chapter number nine. But I want to give you a little bit of background before we get there. Joshua was a leader that took over leading the children of Israel for a guy named Moses Moses took the children of Israel out of Egyptian captivity. You remember the story where Moses showed up to Pharaoh and he said, Let my people go. Y'all remember that movie, it was actually her Bible. So anyway, Moses takes the children of Israel out of Egypt. But before long, he realizes that while I took the people out of Egypt, it's hard to get Egypt out of the people. I'm so thankful for the New Testament in the person of Jesus, that He can take the old us out of us. While we become the new us in the new place. I am so thankful for Jesus because what happened here was a whole generation of people had to die before they could walk into the promised land. And Moses was one of them, Moses died, and Joshua took over. And so Joshua, as he took over, he didn't just take over because he was the next best choice. It was because he was the choice. He was the one the Bible says, would stay behind in the presence of God, when everybody else would leave. He valued God's presence, and he valued God's presence in such a way that while he wasn't leading, God gave him opportunity to lead and he continued to value God's presence in such a way that he led the people well, in the Lord, he reestablished the covenant commitment that had been lost over the 40 years in the wilderness. And the way that he reestablished the covenant that God had with his people was through adult circumcision. Yeah, the Bible says there was a hill of four skins. I didn't. I didn't make that up, man. It's in the Bible. I'm telling you go read it. Some of y'all are looking like to what I'm telling you read the Bible, man. It's awesome. I mean, wait, at that part of the Bible is not awesome. Imagine, imagine being an adult. Okay. I feel like I'm sweating up here, man, holy cow. But it's in the Bible, man. I'm telling you, it's the truth. But what happened? was Joshua in such a way, honor the Lord, that it didn't matter what pet sins a generation of people had held on to. He said, we're going to reestablish our covenant relationship with the Lord. And the way to do that is even though you're an adult, even though you've lived with this your whole life, how many times have those of us who have gone there been there done that said, You know what, I've been doing this sim for a long time. This has been a part of my life for a long time. So I'm just going to leave it here. Joshua said, no, no, that's not good enough. We're going to take a look at that sin issue, we're going to take a look at that thing that disconnects us from the covenant relationship we're supposed to have with our father. And we're gonna cut it away. As God has called us to thankfully, we don't often cut ourselves anymore who Jesus. But we do according to the Spirit of God cut away the sin issues of our heart. And we lay that in a place before the Lord, where we say, God, I don't want anything in my life, even hidden things, even covered things that would separate me from you, Joshua was a great leader. And I'm so grateful for the way that he led and the foreshadowing of Christ that he was for you and I. But in the midst of all of this reestablishing the covenant relationship, allowing the Lord to deal with sin, without excuse of further compromise. There was some battles along the way. And there were some battles where the people of Israel really, really dominated some of their enemies. Now, there was a couple of hiccups too. But Joshua, again, made things right very, very quickly, in the sight of the Lord, being able to move forward according to the plan, the purpose and the destiny of God. And that's where we pick up here in Joshua, chapter number nine. The Bible says this in verse number one, and just in case you didn't get your Bible reading, and I got you covered for this week, but next week, let's get into the Word together. Sound good, everybody. Here we go. Now all the kings west of the Jordan River heard about what had happened. They heard about the battles they heard about the way that God had blessed Joshua and the people of Israel, they had heard about all of the things that have taken place. These were the kings of the Hittites. Amorites, Canaanites, parasites, invites Jebusites, who lived in the hill country in the Western foothills, and along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, as far north Lebanon mountains. These kings combined their armies to fight as one against Joshua and the Israelites. They heard that it was a bad day and so they, they they combined forces to be able to come against the stand against but there was one. The people of Gibson, who had heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and AI, and they've resorted not to join the Army's not to join the crowd, but they resorted to deception to save themselves. They sent ambassadors to Joshua, loading their donkeys with weathered saddlebags and old patch wineskins. They put on worn patch sandals and ragged clothes. And the bread that they took with them was dry and moldy. When they arrived at the camp of Israel and killed God. They told Joshua and the men of Israel, we've come from a distant land to ask you to make a peace treaty with us. The Israelites replied to the headlights, how do we know that you don't live nearby? For if you do, we cannot make a peace treaty with you. They replied, were your servants. But who are you Joshua commanded? Where do you come from? They answered, your sermons have come from a very distant country. We heard of the might of the Lord your God. And all you did, all he did in Egypt. We have also heard what you did to the Amorite kings in the east of the Jordan River. So our elders and our people instructed us take supplies for this long journey. Go and meet the people of Israel and tell them we are Your servants. Please make a treaty with us. This bread was hot from the ovens when we left our homes. But now as you can see, it's dry and it's moldy. The wineskins were new when we filled them, but now they're old and they're split open, and our clothing our sandals, they're worn out from the long journey. So the Israelites examine their food, but they did not consult the Lord. Then Joshua made the peace treaty with them and guaranteed their safety. And the leaders of the community ratified their agreement with a binding oath. Three days after making the treaty, they learned that these people actually live nearby some say Dark Town. So these jokers lied. They deceived they bamboozled they tricked. You ever felt tricked when you got into the middle of something you ever felt bamboozled? You ever felt like somebody didn't tell you the whole story? You ever feel like you didn't see the whole picture before you ventured into this new thing. The Israelites set out a wants to investigate and reach their towns in three days. The names of the towns were as you can read on the screen. But the Israelites did not attack the towns, for the Israelite leaders had made a vow to them in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. Shazam, everybody. Now, how many of y'all know that if you got tricked if you got bamboozled if you got done dirty like this, and somebody deceived you, I don't know if you would, but I know that I would want to offer somebody's head, you know what I'm talking about, like, you lied to me. And because you lied to me, I'm not gonna uphold my end of the deal.
Anybody ever got in the midst of something and you didn't see the whole picture didn't come the way that you felt like it would. And so you wanted to back off the deal that you made anybody ever been there? Of course you had. But I gotta let you know that that's not how the Kingdom comes. See, I think that in this scripture, what we observe is a man who is leading people into Kingdom endeavors. They're seeing the kingdom come and they're seeing the will of God be done as they take on this new land, a generation that was locked out of this promised land for 40 years now beginning to see the fullness, the fulfilment of God and the promise that he made to them. But they got a little bit too big for their britches. They felt like I'm victorious and I'm good. And we got what it takes, and they begin to do something that they should have not done. They did their own examination. Look at this, verse 14, everybody, so the Israelites examined their food, the Israelites examine their food. But they did not consult the Lord. How many of us would begin to experience the good things of God, only to feel like man, we're doing pretty good with God. God's blessing our lives. God is moving us forward. God has shown off on our behalf and so rather than further consult God in the next decision, or the next step, or the next direction, or the next day, what we do is we just rely on what we've already seen, well, I thought, some battles and I won some wars. And so I'm just going to go into Sam, this thing for myself, rather than consulting the Lord, whenever you do that, you are opening yourself up to make a bad decision. See, here's what culture does culture will lie to us and teach us to begin to believe in outcomes rather than an obedience. And when we see the outcome of a battle where we win, or we see the outcome of a decision where we have consulted the Lord, and we become victorious, the next one makes it a little bit easier for us to consult ourselves or to lead into our own self examination. We lean into our own discernment, we lean into our own abilities, yes, that God has given us but he still wants us to call on him. I think that many of us don't see the kingdom come, because we're more interested in what culture says, than in what the kingdom has to say. I remember when we first moved here from Georgia, we were about a year into the life of the church. And we were seeing about 200 people come at that time. And man, we were thrilled with 200 people. I remember talking to an old friend from Georgia, and was just telling them what God had been doing. And this wasn't the first time that I talked to him. But it was the first time since we had moved in a year and a half, that he said to me, Wow, you can really see that God's in what you're doing. And I thought, Wait, God's in what we're doing, because now we're seeing some successes, according to what the world says. And I felt like the Holy Spirit have rested my, my heart and he said, No, no, you were successful, even when you hosted that very first interest party and nobody can see, because if we begin to believe the lies of the culture, that it's only about the numbers, and it's only about the ups and the downs, it's only about the outcome of a thing, what we will begin to do is miss the obedience to God in the midst of the thing. See, God wasn't any more in the outcome when we had 200 that he was in the outcome when we had zero. And he's not any more in the outcome now that we have 1000s that he was when we had 200. God is into obedience, he's not into outcomes. But as long as you and I allow our lives to be dictated to by outcomes, we will believe the lies of culture, have come to encourage you today. Everybody, that it's not ours to examine on our own, it's ours to consult with the Lord. In all things, in all ways at all times. See what God has to say about the next step of our life. Here's what this word consult means to seek information or advice from someone with expertise in a particular area. Can I tell you that God has expertise in every area of your life? You need help in your marriage. God is the expert consultant. You need help with school God as the expert consultant, you need help in that date, even God is the expert consultant. You need help starting your business or making the next step in your business to see it thrive. God is the expert consultant, you need help in disciplining your kids. God is the expert consultant, we need to start consulting the Lord. I think that the reason we don't see the kingdom come in our lives is because we don't first consult the Lord. Most often. We lean into our gift, we lean into our understanding, we lean into everything that we have. And then when we come to the end of ourselves, then we consult the Lord. But by then we've already half the time written a check that we cannot cash. We've got to lead with praying Kingdom prayers, because when we pray Kingdom prayers when we consult the Lord first and most that's when the kingdom can actually come. Specifically today, I want to challenge us I want to encourage us to pray prayers of consultation, where we are in all things, always all things going to the Lord first. Some of us might say, well, I go to Scripture and everything. Okay, but is that scripture bathed in prayer? Or is it just your best interpretation of it? Because you're still missing it. Because if it's the word without the Spirit, you're missing it. But also if it's just the Spirit without the word you're missing, it's gotta be both and it's the Spirit and the Word, the Word and the Spirit of God that leads us in our prayers of consultation. The first thing that we must pray A is we must pray prayers of inquiry. I'm inquiring of God. What does this mean? I'm asking. Simply ask God what he wants to communicate. God What are you saying, somebody comes to you is trying to deceive you bamboozle you trick you get something out of you, that is a benefit to them. What are we supposed to do? Not lean into our own examination, not lean into our own understanding, not lean into our own discernment. We're supposed to ask the Father God, what are you saying? When's the last time you stop long enough? When an opportunity came your way to simply ask God? What are you saying? So many of us, man get out in front of God because we just don't ask him what he wants to say we must prioritize asking God, first and most in all things. The Bible says this and James chapter one, verses five and six, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God. And he'll give it to you. He won't rebuke you for asking. See, some people get we we get so religious like, Well, God doesn't have time for me. God doesn't want me to know God wants you to ask, he loves you as a son, he loves you as a daughter. He loves you as His child he wants you to ask, see, your parents taught you that? Well, you gotta go figure it out. No, that's wrong. God wants you to ask him because he wants to lead you to help you figure it out. See, as parents well, I'm not this is not parenting. I'll teach that in another time. But when you ask him, be sure that you ask him faith in Him alone, not in yourself. Not in your ability. Not in your knowledge, not in your understanding. Your faith in God alone. Do not waver for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. When you ask God asked by faith, God, I know that you love me. And as I'm inquiring of you, I know you've got an answer for me. I know that you don't want to leave me hanging. I don't I know that you don't want to leave me out here. I know you don't want to leave me wondering.
And I know you don't want to leave me wondering. Ask God. Another great scripture to write down in, according to this point is Matthew chapter number seven, seven and eight. Ask not seek, he'll show up. The second thing that we do the second prayer that we can pray in prayers of consultation. First is inquiry. We want to ask God, but second is insights I'm gonna say insight, insight, insight, what we're doing is we're asking God to assess for us. We're not asking God to allow us to assess we're asking God to assess the situation for us. God, I want your insight. What do you know that I don't know? What had what could have happened if Joshua would have stopped and said, Okay, you guys are telling me that you're from far away. But I'm not entirely sure that I believe you. So God, what do you have to say? What insight Do you have helped me assess the situation helped me see beyond what I can see helped me sense beyond what I can sense help me go beyond my natural giftedness and help me see something or know something, understand something in the spirit of the thing. I want to understand as I do, we must allow God to help us assess according to his wisdom and his insight, not according to our own. First John, chapter four, verse one says this, dear friends do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit, you must test them to see if the Spirit they have have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. And there are people all over the place that say they're from God, and they are not from God. They sound right. They look right. But if you know how to discern in the Spirit, you know that it ain't right. Some of the people that sound the best that look the best, the most put together are the scariest to me. Because they don't know the Spirit of God. So they operate in a spirit of deception. They operate a spirit of religion, they spirit, they operate in a spirit of pride. It's scary. You know what pride does? It only looks out for ourselves. sort of come to us in deception and try to work a deal that's best for me even though it might not be the best for you. You know who God cares about? He cares about you. Now he cares about them too, but he cares about you. So he'll always leads you in the place that you're supposed to go. We've got to ask God for his insight, pray prayers of insight that help us assess the third prayer that we pray our prayers of invitation. So we say invitation. And here's what prayers of invitation do I love this. Prayers of invitation help us to establish the address. Like, where are we going? What's what's the next step? When we invite God, I love this. God doesn't leave us wondering, now we're going to have to take steps of faith, for sure. We're going to have to take steps where we don't necessarily see what the next step is. But we have an idea of where we're going because he gives us the address. Romans, chapter eight, verse 14, says, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. And did you know that the Bible also says that God gives good gifts to his children, that means he's not going to leave you out on your own wandering, or wondering what's next? He's gonna give you an address, and he's gonna say, hey, head this direction. I remember when we moved to Lincoln to plant this church, we were praying about planting a church, we're praying about where we might go living in Macon, Georgia, we're praying. And God said, like, and as Louise, just take it back to prayer and pray some more, because please leave leaking. Oh, no. And he said, Lankan, I said, Oh, should we pray about this again, Pastor Kerry was like, now, that's the address. We don't know what the next step is. But we know where we're going. We don't know how it's going. We don't know the outcome of the thing. But we know where we're going. We didn't know when we came for the first interest party that nobody would show up. But we knew where we were going.
Because when you invite God in, he will give you the address. Psalm 37, verse 23, says that he directs the steps of the righteous. Righteous is right standing with God. And you're never more than rightist any than when you invite God in. You invite Him in, not so that you can give him your plan, but so that you can receive His plan, what's your plan, and he'll show you the address. And you'll have to make steps of faith, trust me, trust me. But we need to pray prayers of invitation. And initially, I only had three things, but I feel like there's one more thing that I wanted to give you. So the three prayers to pray actually just make up for integrity, some say integrity. And this is where I see so many followers of Jesus miss it. Is in integrity. Because like I said earlier in the message, somebody comes to me and tricks me. And they say, oh, no, we live far away. But really, they're close. And they did it to deceive me, so that I would create a peace treaty with them. So now they're a danger to me. And they're even more dangerous in my mind, because not only are they a danger, but they'll lie to me. And I don't know about you, but I have a hard time with people who don't tell me the truth. And so in and of myself, I want to cut them off. So if I'm one of the guys that goes to their camp, that three day journey, the further I'm going, the more ticked off I am, I shouldn't have to be on this journey right now. I shouldn't have to be covering this ground right now. They should have told us the truth. And as they told us the truth, we could have decided what we would do with them. But now three days later, I show up to their camp, you know, the first thing I want to do, I want to start cutting some heads off. I want to start showing them who's boss. I want to start showing them I am the child of God, I am the man of God, we are the people of God. But it was so interesting to me because the people of God did not retaliate. Why? Because they established of treason, treaty of peace when that treaty of peace was established, based on a lie. But here's what you have to understand about integrity. Nobody can take your integrity from you. You and I forfeit our integrity by not keeping our word. See the covenant the peace treaty that Joshua made. The Bible says with the people he made it before God. So the treaty was made before God as a believer, not just with the people. If you let people talk you out of your integrity, that's not their fault. It's yours. It's hours, it's mine. When I make a commitment, I uphold my commitment. Whether it was based on truth or a lie, God will give grace to see it through no matter what. But all the more reason everybody to make sure that we stop and we pray prayers of consultation, where we're inquiring of the Lord. We're asking for his insight. God, who do you want me to marry? Which direction? Do you want me to go? When do you want me to start this business? What do you want this to look like? God, I need your mind on this thing. Not my examination, I need you. But even when you do fall, even when you do miss it, you gotta have integrity. Integrity means this. It's the state of being whole, or undivided. As I was praying around this yesterday, I felt like the Lord said that integrity is inner grit. It talks about grit all the time, culturally, oh, yeah, they're just real gritty. Got that business up and rolling. I mean, they've got what it takes. All that player on the on the on the ball, he is he's really booboo off the bat, whatever, right? Grit means this courage, resolve strength of character. But integrity is inner grit. Its courage, its resolve the strength of character that somebody can't see that they wouldn't observe naturally about you. But you put it on display. When culture says hey, it would make sense for you to cut their head off. culture says it would make sense for you to leave leave that culture says it would make sense for you to give up culture says it would make sense for you to stop short culture says it would make sense for you to turn your back on. But integrity says I will make sense because I made a vow before God. And they may be able to lie to me, but I'm not gonna lie to myself. They may be able to deceive me, but I'm not gonna deceive myself. They may be able to give up on me. But I'm not giving up on myself. Some of y'all need to go back to the place where you made a commitment before the Lord. And you've put blame on other people. You say, You know what, Lord, I received this. And I'm moving forward based on integrity, inner grit in me. I believe that's where we're gonna see the kingdom come, where we're gonna see God's will be done. See, we're not trying to just have cute little church services on Sunday morning, everybody. We're trying to get people to live according to the kingdom of heaven. So that your Monday morning has changed so that your Thursday evening has changed. So the way that your marriage is changes, the way that you parent your children changes the way that you do your business changes. That's what we're trying to see. And allow God to do. That our lives might change. Come on, would you stand on your feet with me this morning and all of our locations. I'm gonna pray for you this morning. And as I do, our prayer teams are going to come forward. Because some of us in this room we have gotten out in front of God. Or maybe we've lagged behind God. Maybe we've just missed them all together. And today is the day when we come back into alignment with God. reestablish our integrity to say God, I'll inquire I need your insights. This is how I want to move forward. You need to know what mercy says. Nobody has to pray alone. Nobody has to go with them. God has surrounded us with people, men and women of God brothers and sisters in Christ, who have committed to Jesus first and most have been in similar places situations as you and you don't have to go along. So again, I'm gonna pray that this message hit you. I want you to come forward and receive prayer. As we wrap up service. Father, thank You for every person under the sound of my voice. God, I thank you for the way that you have spoken the direction that you've given. Father, we do want your kingdom to come. God we pray that we will be people of people who seek insight, who offer invitation, and God who stand on integrity. Our own giftedness but what you placed on the inside. So we ask that you do it and do what God says. Let us know. We're not alone. We don't have to face this on our own in Jesus name. Amen
Thanks again for listening to today's message. For more information on all that God's doing at Mercy city or to share how the message has impacted your life. Visit us online at Mercy City DOT church or on social media
Posted in Kingdom Come (2024)
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